ABOUT THE ARTIST

J.R. Ringdahl, an emergent, contemporary abstract artist and native New Englander had his first solo exhibition at the Aegean Academy of Art in Paros, Greece during the summer of 1980 immediately following his graduation from Rochester Institute of Technology where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.

Ringdahl experimented with a vast number of medium and styles during the 1980’s. He was driven to research the contemporary art world and concentrated his efforts in the New York City art scene and Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art which at that time was under the directorship of David Ross. Ross was a major influence in the direction of Ringdahl’s creative expressions as well as the works of artists Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. It was at this cross roads in Ringdahl’s career that he decided to remain a purist with color and composition. He felt abstraction had more to offer in moving beyond the boundaries of rendering representational themes.

During the 1990’s Ringdahl focused on “ellipses”. He concentrated on painting a series of this one shape to expand his natural creative energies which took him on an inward journey throughout the decade.

Ringdahl changed direction again during the last ten years with self interpretive art. He feels that a “force” expresses through him, thereby making him the messenger and the viewer determines the meaning of the art. Ringdahl’s signature brand, muli-layered oil paint and clear, epoxy resin paintings are color intensive and manipulate depth perception. His compositions are thought provoking yet inviting to the viewer. The evolution of this seasoned painter is evident in the understated complexity that now dominates the theme of all his art work.

Ringdahl’s latest creative endeavor has proven itself to be his most cutting edge work to date. Ringdahl, in an effort to explore expressions of the ever evolving life force has created degenerated “fruit sculptures”. The fruit is “frozen in time” with the application of clear, epoxy resin at various stages of degeneration. The results are colorful, thought provoking and sometimes disturbing. Ringdahl has found yet another way, to challenger the viewer’s perceptions about time, the life force and energy that can never be destroyed.

In the course of his career Ringdahl has exhibited his art in New York City, Washington DC, throughout New England as well as internationally.